Social-economic impact of broadband in Kenya Online Discussion 2019

International Data Corporation (IDC) was conducting an assessment on the state of
play and impact of broadband in Kenya, broadly looking at the socio-economic
impact on consumers, businesses and various sectors like agriculture, education,
healthcare, finance and government. This assessment was commissioned by Huawei
in collaboration with Ministry of ICT and the Communications Authority of Kenya. It
had the objective of supporting the policy making process to develop broadband
services and infrastructure throughout Kenya and achieve substantial economic
impact in the economy. Other partners in the study were the ICT Authority and the
National Communications Secretariat.

The assessment involved a review of the current state of play in the sector as well as
gaining insights from a wide range of stakeholders on the barriers and
recommendations to increase the impact of broadband. Among the key
stakeholders identified included KICTANet, from whose members IDC was to seek to
gain civil society and other stakeholder perspectives including real life examples of
impact of broadband, challenges faced in increasing impact of broadband and
recommendations on interventions needed to address the challenges identified. This
was conducted as an online debate facilitated and moderated by KICTANet from
23rd to 30th April 2019.

Through the online discussion, we sort also to understand the current state of play of
broadband in Kenya, including:
What barriers are there in increasing impact of broadband?
What recommendations can counter the barriers in increasing impact of
broadband?
How is the sector regulated and what policies are in place? How is the
business environment for those who want to venture into provision of
broadband services?
How do we create the skills and demand and use cases for broadband?
What local content is there and is it having an impact or not? What type of
local content are we lacking?
How are users and businesses benefiting from broadband?
Any other issues.